Rolling Stone article: In The Studio (May 28th issue)

Album Title TBDDue OutSeptember 9th

Paramore Move Beyond Pop Punk With 'Riot!' Follow-Up

by Matt Diehl

'That's the amp that Dookie was done on!" says Paramore lead guitarist-songwriter, Josh Farro, 21, pointing to a Marshall amp head hanging in the control room of producer Rob Cavallo's home studio, perched high on a hill overlooking Los Angeles. Adds singer Hayley Williams, 20, "We actually used the acoustic guitar that Green Day wrote 'Time of My Life' on. We got the magic on there!"

The Franklin, Tennessee, pop punks - who went platinum with their second album, the 2007 disc Riot! - felt intense pressure to graduate sonically on their as-yet-untitled third album. "We were worried that we were never going to have another song like [Riot!'s hit single] 'Misery Business,'" Williams says. Adds Farro, "Riot! was a kiddie album, but we had to do that to get to this point,"

After spending a month in their Tennessee rehearsal space honing new material written on the road over the last year, Paramore began recording with Cavallo in March, with just five weeks to finish the disc before hitting the road with No Doubt. Cavallo, who's worked with everyone from Green Day to Dave Matthews Band, made sure to keep the band well-fueled during the sessions, with a dedicated soft-serve ice cream machine and dinners cooked by the producer himself. "They had blinders on and just charged ahead," he says. "You don't want to get in the way."

According to Cavallo - whom the band first worked with on "Decode," its hit single from the Twilight soundtrack - the rapid pace didn't affect quality. "The album totally rocks, yet it's also very subtle," he says. "It's got great writing - much more sophisticated than you'd think." Indeed, songs like "Brick By Boring Brick" weave unexpected Smashing Pumpkins-style sonics into the mix, while "Playing God" has a surging bridge that shows the influence of Arcade Fire. "Exception" is a subtle, Radiohead-esque ballad that Williams won't confirm is about her own rumored paramour, New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert. "Read a couple of blogs, and you'll figure it out," Williams says coyly.